HOW A CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK ON SETTING BOUNDARIES BECAME A DARK AND GRITTY YOUNG ADULT NOVEL WITH LOTS OF VIOLENCE AND EVEN MORE OBSCENITIES

One day back in 2017 I was desperately trying to figure out where to go next with a protagonist in a novel I was working on. Out of the blue my muse struck. I had this idea, a picture book really, of a little boy at his school solving mysteries and learning important life lessons along the way. And I thought, “What if I made him a bit of a caricature of Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon?” You know the guy. Hard drinking detective in San Francisco who would just as soon slug first, ask questions that lead to clues second. But Sam had a soft spot for the underdog and I wanted my little detective to have that as well. Tough without, tender within in. And of course I didn’t want him to get into too many fights at school!

From picture book to gritty YA Mystery.

So I put aside the story that was giving me fits and began a piece of flash fiction. In no time at all I’d scribbled well over 1500 words on a yellow legal pad, too long for your typical picture book. But the experience had allowed this new idea to take root, and I decided I’d make it a 10,000 word emerging reader. When I had done that I visited a writing conference, spoke to an agent, who very graciously told me she really liked my idea but saw it more as a middle grade book. “Add another 40,000 words and get back to me,” she said. So back to the drawing board I went, and somewhere along the way I began to see the book not as 50,000 word Middle Grade adventure but an 80,000 plus word Young Adult coming of age. I wanted it to be very dark and very edgy. It would still be a throwback to the pulp fiction and film noir era of Sam Spade. My high school detective, Nacho Blanco, would be tough without, tender within. But the themes would be very adult. Nothing would be off limits. The language would be very unredeemed. And it would not be a book I’d want my now 9 and 7 year olds to read until they’d gotten into their teens. I’m not kidding. These characters in what turned out to be We Planned a Murder have some terrible potty mouths. I must’ve written the word motherfucker I don’t know how many times!

And the book grew up and turned out to be what I was hoping it would become. I think it’s an interesting story. There’s theme. There’s humor. There’s adventure and suspense. There’s love. It has some memorable characters. And it has some very fun plot twists. And the reader can try to solve the mystery of the murder of Lincoln Hardcastle right along with Nacho Blanco.

Like raising kids, which I’ve also done, and am doing again, when you raise a book you learn some things the hard way, through mistakes and trial and error.

So here they are, ten things out of literally hundreds I learned as We Planned a Murder grew from a children’s picture book with a great little message to a dark and gritty YA Novel with its own worthwhile redeeming theme.

1. IF YOU’RE GONNA KILL SOMEONE THEN GET ON WITH IT

Every good story has structure. Some structures are more rigid, some more loose, but they all have it. That’s what holds novels (and movies) together. That’s what makes them fun to read. Have you ever found yourself skipping paragraphs in a novel? Or maybe you’ve been watching a movie and thought “get on with it already!” That has to do with structure. For example, one of the markers for story structure is what is often referred to as the “Doorway of No Return.” The lead character needs to move from the world he knows to the world he doesn’t by somewhere between 20% and 25% of the way through the story. We don’t want him to stay in the familiar. If the character doesn’t move into the unknown the story will drag and boredom is gonna set in real fast. There are other markers along the way but that’s a big one. By the way, in We Planned a Murder, the “Doorway of No Return” happens at the 23% mark. I paid very close attention to that marker and all the markers of story structure.

2. PLOTTING A MURDER IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN PANTSING ONE

They say there are two kinds of writers, those who plot first and write second, and those who wing it and fly by the seat of their pants (i.e. “pantsing”). I don’t know how you’d write a mystery without planning all the clues and red herrings and big reveals. But there are some very good pantsers out there, namely one Stephen King. But since I’m not Stephen King I spent a good deal of time planning out the novel before actually writing it. I started with a giant chart on the wall (okay I had several giant charts on the wall of my kid’s playroom) and ended up using an Excel spreadsheet on my laptop to plan out each scene. I only used my Excel chart during the first draft but I wouldn’t be able to write anything if I didn’t know where I was going first.

3. A BOOK IS NOT A COLLECTION OF CHAPTERS. IT’S A COLLECTION OF SCENES, IN THE RIGHT ORDER, LIKE LINKS ON A BEAUTIFUL NECKLACE FROM TIFFANY & COMPANY THAT ONE DAY COULD VERY WELL BE USED AS A MURDER WEAPON

When I wrote We Planned a Murder I wanted to make sure each scene linked to the one that came before it and to the one that followed. If, at the end of one scene, Nacho is going to see Mr. Dream, then in that next scene he is going to learn something new from Mr. Dream, and this new information or twist or revelation would send him spiraling to something else in the scene that follows. And each scene had to have at least one of two purposes (and both if possible): forward the plot and/or reveal something new about one or more of the characters. I also liked it when I could add some little snippet of backstory to a scene, like when Nacho’s at a party and we learn why he likes to drink what he calls 1885. Once I planned out the novel then I would plan out each scene with lots of details I wanted in that scene. Then I wrote it. We Planned a Murder has 32 chapters but 49 separate scenes, and each scene was pre-planned in detail before writing. Novels aren’t held together by chapters. They’re more like a series of scenes strung together one after the other like beads or links on a necklace.

4. THESE THINGS ALWAYS COME IN THREES

It’s a popular saying, that bad days, or deaths, or any kind of misfortune always comes in threes. This is a device especially used in movies and books. Hollywood knows this big time. They call it the Rule of Three. The next movie you watch look for it. They’ll be at least one or two things that come in threes. I used the Rule of Three in We Planned a Murder. For example, Nacho has a favorite catch phrase, a tag line, and uses it three times in the story. I included others but you get the idea. The Rule of Three solidifies the story and communicates the messages behind it, including theme. Tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. And tell ‘em again.

5. KEEPING TRACK OF OTHER AUTHOR’S MURDERS WAS A MUST FOR MAKING MY OWN COME TRUE

Early on I begin keeping a reading log. I read primarily mystery and crime because, well, that’s what I’m interested in. I read to know what’s out there and what’s been out there. I read across all the different kinds of mystery and crime stories, and I read across the decades. I read from the Golden Classics between the two world wars and I read modern mysteries. And I keep track of them in a little book so I can see where I need to read more and where I need to read less. In the words of Stephen King, “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”

6. WRITING IS THE ART … PUBLISHING IS THE BUSINESS

The reason for this is simple. Reading is a subjective act. We could read the same novel, you and I, and you may think it’s garbage and I might think it’s the next War and Peace. And the same is true for agents. If a manuscript just doesn’t hit them they’re not gonna buy into it, and they’re not gonna be able to sell it to a traditional publishing company. I get that. I read a lot, and after the final page on some of them I’m like “how did THIS ever get published?” But it did. An agent liked it enough to sell it and a traditional publishing company liked it enough to publish it. And a lot of people are gonna enjoy reading it. Just not me. Some are not gonna like my book. That’s okay. It’s not for everyone. We Planned a Murder is a contemporary YA but it comes from the traditions of the old pulp fiction and film noir era. That’s not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea. But it was mine and they always say to write the book you want to read so I did. It’s a subjective art, this craft of writing, and it’s a subjective business, this work of the traditional publishers.

7. I KNOW A GUY WHO KNOWS A GUY, AND HE “KILLED MY DARLINGS”

His name is Jimmy Calloway and We Planned a Murder would not be the same without him. There’s a phrase in the writing community and that is you have to be willing to “kill your darlings,” all those pet lines and scenes and even chapters that you wrote that you’re just so in love with. I had some, and thankfully Jimmy found them and destroyed them. Jimmy was my developmental editor and he is the secret sauce behind the book. I met Jimmy in February of 2021. Jimmy works as the submissions manager at a well-known literary agency in San Diego. Over the course of last year, Jimmy did three developmental passes through the novel. He told me to cut some chapters, bring some characters more to the foreground, had me tone down some lines that were too strong, and so much more. His work was both developmental and copy-editing. But as valuable as I found his critique and corrections, equally prized was his constant encouragement. Jimmy’s belief in the story was a source of strength to me and I continued to believe in the novel because Jimmy believed in it. Unequivocally, We Planned a Murder would not be the same without Jimmy Calloway. I’m already working on the second Nacho Blanco novel and you can bet your sweet bippy I’ll be sending that one to him too.

8. DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

Self-publishing is a great option today but the danger is in publishing the manuscript too soon. As a part of my regular reading I include self published mysteries. Sometimes they’re very good. Sometimes they’re average. And sometimes they’re just done poorly. I read one where the jumping off point, the “Doorway of No Return” didn’t happen until halfway through the book. The dialogue was great but the book was boring and dragged because of structure. A developmental editor, a really good one, could’ve helped with that. My feeling was it got published too soon. Again, independent publishing is a great way to go but it’s also a great way to go down fast. It can be tempting to skip quality just to get the book out there for people to see. It’s fun to have We Planned a Murder on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Apple. But I had to make sure it was ready. And once it passed the Jimmy Calloway test, it was!

9. IT’S GONNA COST YA

Okay, so while we’re on the subject of self-publishing here’s another little thing I learned along the way from the novel metamorphosing from a children’s picture book to a dark YA. Spend some money on your cover art. We totally judge a book by it’s cover. Last fall I was in a Kansas City bookstore and straight up bought a mystery just because of its cover. Dark blue and black with an old fashion typewriter on the front in a scary looking manor. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read that! Indie writers need so spend some money for great covers because traditional publishing houses are. It’s a competition out there. There is so much entertainment vying for our attention these days. So many books. So many TV shows and movies. So many podcasts. It never ends. As authors we need to give our readers that first reason to buy the book. And we want the cover to be true to the story. I read a traditionally published book a few yeas ago and the title and cover were great but had nothing to do with the story. I can’t even remember what it was about now. By the way, I absolutely love the cover of We Planned a Murder. Maria at BeauteBook.com designed it. It cost some money but she did such a fabulous job and I think it accurately depicts the plot and tone of the book. It’s YA. It’s gritty. It’s bloody. And there are a lot of obscenities in it because, well, that’s the kind of people that would get mixed up in something like what happens in Ten Spot, Texas.

10. COLLABORATION BREEDS QUALITY … ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE PLOTTING A MURDER!

As I mention in the acknowledgments section of We Planned a Murder, it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to raise a book. People like Jimmy Calloway and Maria from BeauteBook.com. There were other developmental editors, other people who gave me feedback. And of course there was national bestselling author William Bernhardt who shared with me his own blueprint for bringing a novel to life. Without him We Planned a Murder would still be just a Word document on my laptop. And now my new friend TJ Clark is working on the audiobook version. Oh, wait until you hear him read the book! He is so good and he totally gets the tone of the story. I could not be more pleased with what he’s done so far. The audiobook is in production and should be done by the middle of May. It’ll be on Audible, Amazon, and Apple. But, I say all that to say this: it took more than just me to pull this book together. It’s been a collaboration with Jimmy and Maria and William and now TJ and so many others all bringing their individual talents to the table to help make the story what it is. And not just their creativity but their inspiration as well. In the words of our friend Stephen King, “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to make speeches.” (Hey look, our third Stephen King reference … the Rule of Three strikes again!) Writing a novel is not a one man show, nor would I want it to be. I absolutely can’t wait to work with these four and the rest in the near future on the second installment of Nacho Blanco and other projects I am working on. I needed them. The book would’ve never made it without them. Hey, why plot a murder alone when it’s so much more fun to plot one together!

So there ya go, ten of the hundreds of things I learned along the way as We Planned a Murder grew up from a picture book to a Young Adult mystery. I wasn’t sure in the beginning what the final product would look like, just like we never know how our kids will turn out when they’re grown. But I like the life We Planned a Murder took on, and my greatest joy would be that you enjoy it as well. If you do, well then, as Nacho would say, “that’s all I ever really wanted.”